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<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2
face=Arial>From: "lreich" <lreich@tiscali.co.uk><BR><BR>>>
Rashi on Bamidbar 34:11 and Devarim 3:1 says that North is
upwards.<BR><BR>Nowadays the prevailing convention is for maps to be printed
with north on <BR>top.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2
face=Arial><BR>In earlier times this was not so; often east was so
favored.<BR><BR>So what is the origin of Rashi's assumption.<BR><BR>Is there any
connection with the Pole star being nearly overhead?
<<<BR><BR>Leslie Reich <BR><BR></DIV></FONT></DIV></DIV>
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<DIV>>>>>></DIV>
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<DIV>You are making a simple but common mistake. You are assuming that
"up" means "at the top of the map, i.e., north." But in fact "up" in the
Chumash and in Rashi means up in altitude, going towards higher
ground.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>You mention Rashi in Bamidbar 34:11. Look at Bamidbar 34:11 -
12. The pesukim there say that the eastern boundary of E'Y went down from
Shefam to Rivlah, then further down to the Yam Kineres, then down the Jordan
River, down down down to the Yam Hamelach (the lowest point on earth, I believe
-- but not the furthest south!) </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Rashi merely points out that as you go from north to south ALONG THIS
EASTERN BOUNDARY OF E'Y, you are going lower, lower and lower.
His exact words are, "as the boundary goes from north to south, it keeps
going down."</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Just a couple of pesukim later, Bamidbar 34:15, on the words "kedmah
mizracha" ("to the front, to the east"), Rashi spells out that FRONT = east,
BACK or behind = west, RIGHT = south and LEFT = north. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>When Rashi says that north is up and south is down, he is talking about
altitude in a specific geographic area. All the time you are
going from north to south along the Jordan River, you are going down, down, down
in altitude, from mountains in the north to a low plain, even lower than sea
level -- where the Dead Sea is.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>In fact I am pretty sure that the Yarden is called the Yarden -- "that
which goes down" -- because it starts up high and goes down, down, down.
</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>But you must not think it is going from up at the top of a map to down at
the bottom of a map! Rather, Tanachically speaking, the Yarden is
flowing from left to right as you face front/east with the Mediterranean sea
behind you. Whenever you orient yourselves in Tanach in terms of
direction, you have to face east. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>The Torah (and Rashi) never uses the words "up" and "down" for direction as
we Westerners do when we look at a Western map. The Torah uses
"front" and "back" for directions. The Torah only uses up and down
for height, altitude.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>In Devarim 3:1 it says, "vana'al derech haBashan" -- "we went up the way of
the Bashan." I think the Bashan is somewhere around the Golan
Heights. In any case, it is a place with a high altitude, and it
is somewhere to the northeast of E'Y. When Rashi comments over there, "kol
tzad tzafon hu aliyah" he is NOT saying that the north everywhere in the world
is "up." He is saying that the further north you go from the Sinai Desert
to the Bashan, the further up you go. You are going up in
altitude.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>The ArtScroll translation does not clarify this but in the
Silverman Chumash, the translation of this Rashi on Devarim 3:1 is
explicit: "Every journey towards the north (from the wilderness towards
Canaan) is 'uphill.' "</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT lang=0 color=#0000ff size=2 face=Arial FAMILY="SANSSERIF"
PTSIZE="10"><FONT color=#000000></FONT><BR><STRONG>--Toby
Katz<BR>=============</STRONG><BR>Romney -- good values, good family, good
hair<BR><BR><BR>-------------------------------------------------------------------
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